Book by Dan Osterman

Songs by Nick Thorkelson

Directed by Jaime Carrillo

June 17-25, 2016

at Boston Playwrights’ TheatreBoston, Massachusetts

Dreambook, conceived by multidisciplinary artists Dan Osterman and Nick Thorkelson and directed by Jaime Carrillo, was a collaborative theatrical reimagining of pre-Civil War New Orleans, a place that is often considered the most unique of U.S. cities. Osterman and Thorkelson’s fictional drama, with musical elements performed live, served as an invitation to envision this particular past, with fresh eyes and ears, while also coming to grips with what changes have developed in American culture since then. Or not.

Dreambook, the premiere commissioned by Fort Point Theatre Channel and presented at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, interlaced Osterman’s 19th-century literary style, full of magic and pageantry, with Thorkelson’s more contemporary New Orleans musical streetscape. The year was 1848, a particularly volatile time in American history in terms of human rights and a looming war.